Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Well, for the entire Australian population today, we've seen this government, this Prime Minister, on display, for all to get a better understanding of what this government, what this Prime Minister, is about. It is a lack of transparency, as the Manager of Opposition Business just pointed out. It is an incompetence that is now creeping into many portfolios and is becoming more obvious to all Australians. It's not just in relation to Indigenous affairs that you can point to a gross level of incompetence on the front bench of the Labor Party. I'll go through some other areas where at the moment that is having a consequential negative impact on the Australian public, none of which was spoken about before the last election.

The Prime Minister of this country, when he was Leader of the Opposition, went to the Australian people with a promise to reduce power prices by $275. It wasn't an off-the-cuff remark. It wasn't some passing comment that was picked up by a microphone. He promised it on 97 occasions. Was there any sincerity to it? Well, the Australian public believed there was at the time. People thought that they were listening to a man of integrity and of his word and that he would follow through on what he had promised them, on the undertaking he'd given.

The government have now presided over two budgets. They have taken economic decisions in those two budgets through legislation that they've introduced into this chamber. In all of that debate, in all of the public contributions from the Prime Minister in this place and around the country, bearing in mind that he mentioned it 97 times before he was elected, how many times do you think he's mentioned that figure of $275 since then?

An opposition member: At least 97!

Someone is saying, 'At least 97'; no, it's less than 97, I can say.

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